As you’re reading this, we’re several months into the new millennium or, depending on your viewpoint, the year before it. And while life goes on pretty much as it did before – still no flying cars, time travel, matter transfer, pill-form meals or miracle cures for a myriad of diseases – there’s still an inescapable feeling of something new in the air, something more than the usual “New Year” feeling.

Like us, you’re probably thrilled that all the “last of the century/millennium/era” and Y2K hype is finally beginning to fade. You’ve just started to be able to date things with “00" and not think it looks and feels like some kind of weird neo-retro throwback to the days of handlebar mustaches, bustle skirts, and tricycles with five-foot tall front wheels. Given this, it’s unlikely you’d enthusiastically embrace any attempt to bring the whole overblown issue back into focus.

Understandable. But before you mentally click the final lock shut, you might want to take one more look at the year 2000, this time as an opportunity to better your business. A new beginning. A fresh perspective. Naturally, we’re talking about your commitment to using promotional products. We’re not obfuscating or sugar-coating it. That’s why we’re here. It’s what we do. It’s our business.

Still, there’s some real, objective logic behind the suggestion. Even though everyday life hasn’t yet reached the Jetsons stage, computer-based technology continues to advance at near-incomprehensible speed. The combination of e-commerce and the growing proliferation of portable multiple-task communications devices (read: laptops, pagers, Palm Pilots, cellular phones that do everything but brush your teeth) has already changed – and will continue to change – the way we all do business. But don’t pack your bags just yet. Rest assured that there will always be a need for person-to-person contact – just less than what most of us are accustomed to today. The one business truth experts agree will continue to remain uppermost no matter how much things change, however, is the demand for more highly targeted, effective marketing that yields positive, beneficial and (most important) measurable results. Precisely the kind of thing promotional products can accomplish when used in conjunction with other ad media. We’ve said it before, and we’ll no doubt be saying it well into the 22nd century: Given the overall philosophy surrounding their use and the method of distribution, logoed goods can’t help but be highly targeted. Not only that, their very nature makes them infinitely more flexible than print, outdoor or electronic advertising. They can adapt to nearly any purpose a company might need them to. In this issue alone we examine company picnics, incentives, continuity programs and unexpected/creative applications. Obviously, there are scores of other suitable opportunities.

So, one more time, take a good, long, objective look at how you’re currently employing promotional products as part of your marketing mix. Can your strategy stand some tweaking? Is your firm using imprinted merchandise where it has the greatest potential for success? Is it accomplishing what you’d hoped? If not, how can it be made to work better? Feel free to call your counselor and discuss any questions, objectives, concerns and hopes you might have. Between the two of you, you’re bound to come to a satisfying solution that won’t break – or even unduly bend – your budget. Thanks for listening. And now, back to our regularly scheduled millennium. Or maybe not quite yet ...

PS: What do you think of IMPRINT’s new look? Any comments/suggestions/complaints? Please let us know! Fax me at (888) 287-6298 or e-mail me at abernstein@asicentral.com.